I was tired before this game even started. I had just spent two straight days in 10 hours of meetings, and I mentally done. It was my department’s annual meeting at work, and usually it’s a “destination”
event. Sometimes it’s in San Antonio — yes to that! It’s my hometown, an easy drive from Houston, and the Riverwalk rocks. It’s been in Dallas before (no fun — longer drive and an uninteresting city in my opinion), but this year, it was going to be in Florida! (Fun, plus I haven’t been there since I was four years old!)
Regardless of where, it’s supposed to be anywhere but Houston since over half my department is here, with the rest scattered around the eastern half of the country, and the goal is to have everyone together where there’s dinner and bonding afterwards while no one can slip out and go home. It’s tiring, but I enjoy the bonding part of it (at least dinner, I’m not part of the crowd that goes drinking until 2AM just to be suffering through the next day of meetings).
However, for budgetary reasons, Florida got canceled, and the meeting was here in our downtown Houston office, with all the remote folks on conference call. Without being in a hotel, there was still the commute to and from work, making the day even longer, and I didn’t get to see coworkers from around the country whom I talk to often but am lucky to see in-person once a year. And for the cherry on top, this was the third year in a row the meeting was impacted by a winter storm, which ended up canceling Monday’s events and jamming everything into Tuesday and Wednesday. In other words, it was just two super long work days with the only plus being free breakfast and lunch.
After all that, an 8:30 Spurs-Rockets tip-off felt even more brutal than usual. Compound that with a horrible first 20+ minutes of action where the Spurs looked completely helpless — it felt like they weren’t even trying while the Rockets were slicing right through their defense on their way to a 16-point lead with 3:22 left in the first half — and I was ready to write a cranky WWL this morning. Longtime Pounders probably know I’m usually an optimist and try not to be too critical (they’re young, this is Mitch Johnson’s first full season as a head coach, give him a chance, etc.), but I wasn’t having it last night. Not after they showed a similarly atrocious effort in a home loss to the Pelicans a few days ago, and not after this issue with complacency and inconsistency has been going on for over a month now.
This was what I had to say while texting with Jeje Gomez and Jacob Douglas during the first half, right after a slew of Rockets offensive rebounds (including one where the ball bounced between three Spurs who were just watching before a Rockets player who was outside the play grabbed it) and careless backcourt turnovers: “I can give them (the Spurs) a grace period for stuff like shooting slumps, but poor effort and complacency is unforgivable. How many more ‘wake up call’ games do the need (before they get the memo)?”
Apparently, my superpower is the revere jinx, because not long after that, they figured something out. They got more physical, stopped being careless with the ball, and started getting stops and rebounds. I was personally shocked that they were still in the game and only down by eight at the break, and in a reverse from last week’s game in Houston, the team that started hot fell off a cliff in the second half, especially the fourth quarter, and by then the Spurs were running over them so badly that even Kevin Durant was about to throw a fit.
This is what we expect to see from this team: physical, hungry and determined. The second half brought me joy the same way the first half brought me frustration, and it turned this entire WWL on its head. Was this finally the wakeup call they will take to heart, or are we destined to be frustrated again if a Charlotte Hornets team currently playing well above its record catches them off guard on an early Saturday tip-off? We’ll find out then, but in the meantime, I’ll relish the win against a rival that I already saw as a scheduled loss, which seemed even more likely after 21 minutes of play.
Takeaways
- Just like this game and the Spurs as a whole, it was a tale of (almost) two halves for Stephon Castle. For the first 21 minutes, he was the frustrating version of himself: sporadic on defense, indecisive on offense, and leaving everyone clamoring for him to just let De’Aaron Fox have the ball-handling duties. Then, like everyone else, he flipped a switch and was the best version of himself by the second half. He guarded and annoyed the Rockets best players, from Kevin Durant to Alperen Sengun, and contributed on offense by not trying to do too much, simply taking the lanes the defense gave him and finishing at the rim. As he showed last night, he’s a game changer for the Spurs when everything is clicking, and now we just need to see it on a more consistent basis.
- I was ready to give Victor Wembanyama an equally hard time on here while watching the first half. He was passive and looked frustrated on both ends, which has been a common theme for him with physical teams like the Rockets. But perhaps my biggest concern was watching him get manhandled by the similarly slender Durant. Granted, Durant is a bit thicker with 4 extra pounds to cover at last 5 fewer inches (I still say Wemby is closer to 7’7” than 7’4”, but whatever), but he’s still 15 years older. While he’s still a very good player at age 37, he should not be pushing Wemby around on his way to the basket or preventing Wemby from doing the same on the other end. Fortunately, Wemby figured that out in the second half and picked up: attacking everyone on defense, blocking shots, and muscling his way to the rim for shots or free throws. To both Wemby and Castle: more of this, please.
- Our Editor-in-Chief J.R. Wilco has told me he feels the same way, but I have a passionate sports hate for Sengun, and I’m not even going to pretend like I don’t know why. I’m sure he is a great guy off the court, but man, I can’t stand watching him play basketball. He flops too much for such a big dude, he’s a Luka Doncic-level whiner with the same whiney face and “I’ve never committed a foul in my life but am fouled every time I touch the ball” attitude, and his body language is terrible. He’s an All-Star level player that I’m sure we would love if he was a Spur — we all know the mistake the Spurs made in drafting you-know-who ahead of him in 2021 — but ultimately, I’m glad he’s not. I just don’t like him, and it’s only compounded by him being on a direct rival.
